Douglas DC-3/C-47/R4D-6S

Before the U.S. entered World War II, the civilian aircraft known as the CF-3 had already flown over 300 million miles in domestic service. The DC-3 was the only transport aircraft being manufactured in large quantities at the beginning of the war, and as the C-47 in U.S. Army Air Forces service it became the most used Allied transport during the Second World War. Around the world, it carried food, fuel, ammunition, vehicles, and medical supplies, evacuated wounded, dropped paratroopers, and towed more gliders than any other aircraft, repeatedly proving safe and reliable. This aircraft, S/N-17278, began as a C-47B ordered on a USAAF 1942 wartime procurement contract at the Douglas Oklahoma City Plant. It was one of 148 U.S. C-47Bs diverted to the U.S. Navy and redesignated as an R4D-68, with the “S” suffix identifying it as outfitted for submarine search work, and it flew along the eastern U.S. seaboard.

Lubbock, Texas · United States